What is inbound marketing and what does it have to do with your business?

Engaging with silent digital conversations

In short, inbound marketing is engaging with the silent digital conversations that are happening in your town or city, about the product or service you offer. Engagement is having a digital identity and information that people can find and share about your business on the Internet.

People asking for recommendations on Facebook, Instagram and other social media channels.

Happy customers wanting to recommend your service or product to others.

Potential customers searching for a product or service on Google.

People looking for answers to their pre-sale questions.

Potential customers looking for social evidence that your business can be trusted by others.

The first image below is someone asking for recommendations for an electrician. In the next image people are giving their recommendations. In the image after that an electricians Facebook page being shared by someone. The final image shows the number of times electricians have been searched for on Google in one month in Coffs Harbour (Impressions) which, is a small sample of the different search terms used.

Couple of Questions for you

How many people do you see with smart phones? Just about everyone, right?

How many do you see talking on their smart phones? As we all know; not many!

If most of us are communicating silently on our phones, why do business owners insist on offering their phone number as the only form of communication in their signage and advertising?

Is your business ready for the silent digital revolution happening right now

Can people deal with your business without calling you on the phone?

Can anyone find information on your service or products without speaking to you on the phone?

Thanks to the Internet and always connected smart phones, people are using their devices to get the info they want. From this pre-purchase research they often know what they want and from whom before they contact the store, or service provider. Many prefer not to call at all and just want to send a digital message.

joining the silent conversation

To join these silent but digital conversations you need a digital identity and some content that offers advice and answers some pre-sale questions. You need this content to be sharable on a Facebook Page and preferably on a website too, for reasons I’ll outline in another post. Just remember this; each piece of content (post, image, video) you create has the potential to become an advertisement for your business which can stay present on the net for years to come.

Provide content that helps people choose you

Show them reviews, or social evidence of what others think about your product or service.

What ever you do; make it useful to a potential buyer.

COnclusion

Not everyone is ready to buy right now. Some would prefer to do some research and part of their research is asking for recommendations on Facebook or to do a few Google searches to check reviews of products or businesses. Everyone does it differently, but one thing is for sure; if you have no digital content you have no influence on these digital conversations and you make it harder for people to tell others about you and your business.